The holidays are right around the corner—and, by "holidays," I mean all the holy days between Thanksgiving and Epiphany—which means our churches are about to experience their semi-annual population boom. The Christmas 'n Easter Catholics, affectionately called Submarine Catholics by a friend of mine because they surface twice a year, will soon be flooding our churches—which can stress out the regular Mass-goers, who may be tempted to mutter curses while trying to find parking and seating....

I trust that it was made clear to you when you were contacted by Lower Command about this new assignment that I accepted you for this task with the gravest of concerns for your ability to accomplish the planned objective for Our Father Below. My hated nephew Wormwood—who managed to pin on his uncle that unfortunate incident of losing a patient to the Enemy some time ago (by the reckoning of the...

Facebook is an intriguing social phenomenon for many reasons. One that has long fascinated me is Facebook Likes. For those of you who have resisted being sucked into Facebook, Likes are links to public pages on Facebook that are established by members based on their personal preferences. These links allow members to see in their personal newsfeed the updates from public pages that they have Liked.

A couple of years ago, I attended a Bible study class on the Book of Ruth at a local synagogue. I was interested in learning more about Scripture from a Jewish perspective. One aspect of the class that fascinated me was that the rabbi leading the class focused the class's attention on small details of the text on which I never would have thought to focus. For example, what was the significance of Elimelech and his family choosing to leave Bethlehem during its time of trial (...

I am always rather in awe of the spiritual lives of others, as they have been related to me. To hear some people tell it, they speak with God on a regular basis and are constantly being given direction on what they should do. God is quite busy in their lives, and they are extraordinarily open to receiving his consoling word. Here is a representative example of some of the reports I've heard (details merged, changed, and embellished to ensure anonymity):